It's a Thursday night in Manchester and two of the newest stars of TV’s Love Island are getting photographers’ flashbulbs popping as they head for drinks at Menagerie Bar at New Bailey.

Earlier Dom Lever and Jess Shears had been spotted at Australasia on Spinningfields, and later the new showbiz couple were snapped by the city’s paparazzi heading to Club Liv on Peter Street.

The fledgling stars were taking a familiar and well-trodden path between the different bars known as “celeb haunts” in Manchester, places where a host of famous (and not-so famous) faces have chosen to party in recent years.

Love Island's Dom and Jess partied up a storm at Club Liv (Image: Club Liv)

Seemingly the same selection of premium bars, restaurants and clubs (the likes of San Carlo, Neighbourhood, Rosso, Panacea, Tattu, The Living Room and The Bijou Club as well as Menagerie, Australasia and Club Liv mentioned above) regularly feature as the backdrop to the celebrations and exploits of the stars Manchester boasts.

Whether it be the city’s Premier League footballers and their glamorous WAGs, stars of locally-filmed soaps Coronation Street or Hollyoaks, or the regular round of visiting A-listers either performing at our music venues or shooting major film or TV series who then choose to eat and drink in the buzzing city centre.

So why is it that some bars become the place to see and be seen for the “in crowd” and others not?

When you look at some of the main “celeb haunts” in Manchester, there’s a raft of reasons behind their success in regularly attracting a starry crowd.

Friends in high places

Karina Jadhav opened Neighbourhood bar with her then-husband James Hitchen in 2013 - and the couple watched as it swiftly became THE place to be for celebrities.

When they split, Karina launched her own bar, Menagerie at New Bailey, which has become a new hotspot for stars.

Karina Jadhav, Founder of Menagerie, pictured outside her bar on New Bailey

Karina, talking about opening Neighbourhood, says: “We never aimed to become a celeb haunt, we just wanted to create a great restaurant and bar. We just became friends with a lot of the people. It was not something we set out to be.

“But once people like something, whether they are famous or not, they tell their friends, and they tell their friends and before you know it there’s a snowball effect.

“We built those relationships and you become friends with the people who come in, for me it was people like Steph Waring from Hollyoaks, fashion designer Nadine Merabi, Jude Cisse [property tycoon and ex-WAG].”

Those friends supported Karina when she opened her new bar last year, Menagerie, which has seen star guests including Michelle Keegan, Coleen Rooney and Corrie stars like Cath Tyldesley, Katie McGlynn and Lucy Fallon attend in recent months.

Karina says: “I think the reason you get such a celebrity crowd is because Manchester is different to other cities, it’s more of a community. So you might have Ryan Giggs chilling at the bar just like anyone else, but people treat it as totally normal as there’s often a mix of celebrities in the bar.

“Footballers are some of our best customers, they’re just really nice people to have in they’re polite and keep themselves to themselves.

“We’re so fortunate to have two massive international football clubs, as well as MediaCity and loads and loads of production companies here so there’s a great mix of creative people regularly out on the scene.”

Karina Jadhav with Gemma Merna and Jude Cisse at the launch of Menagerie

The term “celeb haunt” is enough to make some people bristle with rage, but like or loathe that title, the places bestowed with it (and yes, us journalists can take some of the blame for that) undoubtedly get people talking.

Celebs attract more celebs

Take Italian restaurant San Carlo. Probably the city’s most infamous celeb haunt of recent years, the family-owned Italian opened its doors on King Street West some 12 years ago at a site that had been opened as a variety of restaurants in previous years, none of which had attracted any kind of buzz at all.

But within a week of opening, Sir Tom Jones had walked through the doors - and from then on the roster of celebrities just grew and grew every week.

They’ve now had so many famous faces - including the likes of Rihanna, Noel and Liam Gallagher, Michael Buble, Lionel Richie, the entire Man United and City squads at one time or another - that the walls are near-groaning with all the framed phots of the stars who have walked up those famous white steps into the venue.

San Carlo has hosted celebs over the past 12 years including Liam Gallagher, Tulisa, David Beckham and Rihanna

Owner Marcello Distefano finds it hard to explain, other than putting it down to being consistently at the top of their game as a restaurant.

He says: “When we opened in Manchester, the very first week, Sir Tom Jones came in. And around that time, Sven-Goran Eriksson started to come in all the time when he was managing City, and the owner, and then we’d get all the football people in and it just started to spread.

“I can’t really explain it to you, other than to say celebrities are just like ordinary people - they just want to go to the best places for atmosphere, for food, that’s how it works.

“But the more celebrities who came, the more the name became really well known, you end up in the press all the time for it. There are the positives and negatives to being known as a celeb haunt.

Sir Tom Jones back at San Carlo in June this year - 12 years ago he was the first celeb through their doors! (Image: Stephen Farrell)

“The positives are great, you get a lot of media coverage - it’s free PR at the end of the day which is amazing, so you have to embrace it.

“Anyone who says they’d rather not have it is lying, because it is great for a restaurant.

“But however it does split people, what we have noticed over the years you see comments on social media saying ‘they’re only bothered if you’re a celebrity’, well hang on, we serve 3,000 people a week, and what percentage of those are celebrities? If we were only looking after celebrities we wouldn’t have a business.

“We’re not showy or pretentious at all, we’re still one of the busiest restaurants in Manchester, and that wouldn’t be the case if we had the attitude that we just look after celebrities.”

No freebies!

Many people assume that celebrities head to certain places because they’ll get a freebie - but that suggestion always gets Marcello laughing.

He says: “They all pay. We have had a few people down the years who say ‘we can bring so and so in if we get it free’ and we say no.

“To be fair it’s very rarely that we get asked for a freebie, and it’s usually when it’s a very low level celebrity.

“Celebrities want to be treated the same as everybody else. You might get a prima donna every now again, or if it’s a big celeb from the US they might want a bit more privacy, and we will accommodate that where we can.

"Like Rihanna when she first came we got her in the private dining room, but on another occasion she also sat in a booth in the main restaurant with everybody else.

Rihanna at San Carlo in an instagram picture by her friend @MForde11 (Image: Instagram @MForde11)

“Russell Crowe asked us to squeeze him in on a busy Saturday night, you can’t refuse Russell Crowe can you? But we couldn’t fit him in to the restaurant for a table, so instead we managed to sit them around the bar so they could sit there and still have some dinner.”

On the freebie issue Karina from Menagerie agrees, saying: “We’re a small business, so we can’t afford to give freebies to people.

“We’re not paying people to come in because we don’t need to.

“We can’t stop the paps sitting outside waiting, and if someobody really doesn’t want to be papped they will go elsewhere.”

Stars want to feel comfortable

Over at Club Liv on Peter Street, owner Mo Mohamud knows all about dealing with a celebrity clientele at his basement nightclub.

He was part of the team behind private members bar The Circle Club in Manchester back in the day, where he built up relationships with footballers and famous faces that has stood him in good stead with launching his own club, where there is a regular flow of A-listers and famous faces every weekend.

Mo says: “It’s all about creating an environment that people feel comfortable in - and that is the same for celebrities as for anyone. If you create a good environment, the celebrities will tell all their other friends, ‘if you go to Manchester, you go to this place’ - that has really worked for me over the years.

“Having celebrities attend does have a knock-on effect and it does help absolutely - if someone says it doesn’t then they are lying.

“At the end of the day, everybody wants to be seen somewhere that someone else is at. If people you look up to are there, you want to be there too.

Jason Derulo Entertaining at Club Liv Manchester, (Image: REZAKIO)

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“I get so many calls from other bars asking ‘How do you do it? How do you get these people? How much do you pay for them?’, but I promise you, we don’t pay people - unless it’s someone doing a DJ set or similar.

"People think celebs come because you pay them, but that doesn’t really happen. The real celebrities don’t demand anything - take for example Jessie J, she’s a huge star, but she came in after her concert, she didn’t expect anything, she paid for everything she was great - the same with Will.i.Am, they just want a safe environment to enjoy themselves.”

Jessie J Arrives at Club Liv

A famous owner has star pull

Having a famous face as the owner of a restaurant also brings with it the star pull, and when footballer Rio Ferdinand, at the time Manchester United’s captain, launched his Rosso Restaurant on Spring Gardens in 2009, it created a huge buzz.

Rio Ferdinand was joined by a host of stars including Brooke Vincent and Katie Price at his Rosso relaunch party in January 2017 (Image: Stephen Farrell)

The venue swiftly became known for its starry clientele - and a host of Rio’s United team-mates would often be spotted there, as well as the venue hosting United Christmas parties and title-winning celebrations over the years.

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Manager Sasha Svatek said that having that star endorsement was a huge boost when opening the venue, but the key to their success was building that reputation over the years.

Sasha says: “The restaurant was set up by Rio so it was always going to have that starry element, it opened to much fanfare, it was that place to be, it had that reputation from the start.

“We were created by Rio, so it was natural for his friends and family and associates that they had a place to go, but 100 per cent we are designed to be accessible to everyone.

Rosso Restaurant on Spring Gardens (Image: Eddie Garvey)

“We don’t class ourselves as a celeb haunt, but because of who we are owned by, we opened up with that celebrity reputation straight away.

“We’ve grown into something more than a celebrity-owned restaurant, we’re a destination restaurant for celebrations and special dinners, but of course there is still that appeal that you might also spot someone famous when you dine here.”

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Christmas parties

There's also a great way to keep an eye on where is the most in-demand celeb haunt in town - check out where the stars all hold their Christmas parties. The Manchester United team WAGs' festive night out has been a fail-safe barometer of where's hot in the city in recent years.

Recent locations? Neighbourhood on Spinningfields in 2014, Tattu on Spinningfields in 2015 and most recently it was Menagerie on New Bailey.

The Manchester United WAGs out on their Christmas party at celeb haunt restaurant Tattu in Spinningfields (Image: Jon Baxter)

New arrivals

There are interesting times ahead for the "celeb haunt" scene in the city. For in September the world-renowned bar Mahiki heads to Manchester for the first time, opening up in the former One Central club site in the city centre.

The venue's original Mayfair Tiki bar has become famous for its raft of A-list fans, with everyone from movie stars to royalty partying there in recent years.